Stern’s statement makes it clear NBA will return — but when?

NBA commissioner David Stern described the abrupt break in negotiations as pro basketball’s “nuclear winter.”

But he still expects that the league will return in some form.

Here’s what he had to say in his official statement released by the NBA last night.

“At a bargaining session in February 2010, Jeffrey Kessler, counsel for the union, threatened that the players would abandon the collective bargaining process and start an antitrust lawsuit against our teams if they did not get a bargaining resolution that was acceptable to them.

“In anticipation of this day, the NBA filed an unfair labor practice charge before the National Labor Relations Board asserting that, by virtue of its continued threats, the union was not bargaining in good faith. We also began a litigation in federal court in anticipation of this same bargaining tactic.

“The NBA has negotiated in good faith throughout the collective bargaining process, but — because our revised bargaining proposal was not to its liking — the union has decided to make good on Mr. Kessler’s threat.

“There will ultimately be a new collective bargaining agreement, but the 2011-12 season is now in jeopardy.”

Other than the fact that he likely won’t be remembering Kessler in any holiday gift exchanges, Stern leaves it clear that basketball will return.

But how about it Spurs Nation? Would you come back to watch the NBA if there was a gap of at least one season?